I’m an 88-year-old Gig Harbor resident who visits my husband daily in a Tacoma care home. The bridge toll is $4.50 with the Good To Go pass. In July, rates will rise to $5 and then rise again in 2016 and 2017. My toll at $5 will total $1,825 per year.
Many senior citizens cannot afford that. The higher the toll, the fewer people will cross the bridge, if they have a choice. Isn’t that “pricing yourself out of the market”?
To prove my point, due to the toll increase:
• A friend’s daughter on Fox Island never goes to Tacoma anymore.
• The same friend’s sister in Rosedale will cross only in an emergency.
• Another friend moved to Fircrest and changed her dentist from one she’d had for 17 years.
• I’ve changed my husband’s four doctors from Gig Harbor to Tacoma so I need not pay twice crossing the bridge for appointments. That was difficult.
Tacoma has stores we don’t have, and I know many seniors won’t pay the bridge toll to shop. Hotels, restaurants, etc., offer senior rates so why not the same for the Narrows Bridge? A reduced rate for seniors would surely make a difference.
So to solve my own problem, I shouldn’t visit my husband daily? No way! It’s one of the few things we look forward to.
